EC2403

RF and Microwave Engineering

MICROWAVE TUBES
 OUTLINE
1. Introduction of Microwaves
2. High frequency limitation of
conventional tubes
3. Types of Microwave tubes
4. Reflex klystron-Mechanism of operation
5. Mode of oscillation
6. Power output and Efficiency

2
 Electromagnetic Spectrum

3
 Microwaves
 Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves
 wavelengths ranging from few cm to mm
 frequencies ranging from 1GHz to 1000 GHz
 Advantage
 Power requirement is very less compared to LF signals
 Larger Bandwidth : The band width of microwaves is
larger than the low frequency signals - more
information can be transmitted using single carrier
 Improved directive properties
 Less Fading effect and more reliable

4
 Applications Of Microwaves
• Wireless Communications (space, cellular phones, cordless
phones, WLANs, Bluetooth, satellites etc.)
• Radar and Navigation (Airborne,vehicle, weather radars,
GPS etc.)
• Remote sensing (Meteorology, mining, land surface,
aviation and marine traffic etc.)
• RF Identification (Security, product tracking, animal
tracking, toll collection etc.)
• Broadcasting (AM,FM radio, TV etc.)
• Heating (Baking, Food process, Ovens, Drying, Mining,
rubber industry)
• Bio-medical application(Diagnostics)

5
 High Frequency Limitations of Conventional
Tubes
 Conventional tubes fails to operate above 1 GHz.Reasons:
(1) Transit Time effect
 The time taken by an electron to travel from cathode to
anode

(2) stray reactance

 Due to lead wire inductance and Inter-electrode capacitance
6
 Solution to this problem??

is
Microwave tubes

7
 Microwave Tubes
Klystron
Traveling Wave Tube
Magnetron

8
 REFLEX KLYSTRON

9
 Reflex Klystron oscillator

10
 Mechanism of operation

 A reflex klystron consists of an electron gun, an accelerating

grid, a single re-entrant cavity and a repeller plate
 Electrons are emitted from cathode’K’ is accelerated by the
grid ‘G’ and passes through the cavity anode A to the repeller
space
 Due to DC energy, RF noise is generated in the cavity
 Electrons passing through cavity gap experiences
Velocity Modulation

11
 Mechanism of operation
 The electrons
 ‘a’ which encountered the positive half cycle of the RF field in
the cavity gap d will be accelerated,
‘b’ which encountered zero RF field will pass with unchanged
original velocity, and
‘c’ which encountered the negative half cycle will be
decelerated on entering the repeller space.
 All these velocity modulated electrons will be repelled back to
the cavity by the repeller due to the negative potential.

12
 Mechanism of operation
 The repeller distance L and the repeller voltage can be
adjusted to receive all the electrons at a same time on the
positive peak of the cavity RF cycle.
 Thus the velocity modulated electrons are bunched together
and lose their kinetic energy when they encounter
the positive peak of the cavity RF field.
 This loss of energy is transferred to the cavity to conserve
total power.
 When power delivered by the electrons is equal to the power
loss in the cavity- Microwave oscillation is started

13
 Mode of Oscillation
 These bunched electrons deliver maximum power at any instant of
positive peak of RF cycle
 If T is the time period at the resonant frequency, to is the
time taken by the reference electron to travel in the repeller space
between entering the repeller space and returning to the cavity at
positive peak voltage on formation of the bunch
Then, to = (n + ¾)T = NT
Where N = n + ¾, n = 0,1,2,3…….
N – mode of oscillation
The Power output of lowest mode?
is Maximum

14
 Analysis of Reflex Klystron:

 Velocity Modulation
 Transit time
 Density Modulation and beam current
 Power output
 Efficiency

15
 Velocity modulation

Basic assumptions:
 Cavity grid and repeller plate are parallel and large
 No RF field is excited in repeller space
 No electron interception by the cavity anode grid
 No debunching action in the cavity space
 V1<<V0

16
 Performance Characteristics
1. Frequency: 2– 200 GHz
2. Power: 10 mW – 2.5 W
3. Theoretical efficiency : 22.78 %
4. Practical efficiency : 10 % - 20 %
5. Tuning range : 5 GHz at 2 W – 30 GHz at 10
mW

17
 Applications

 The reflex klystrons are used in

1. Radar receivers
2. Local oscillator in microwave receivers
3. Portable microwave links
4. Pump oscillator in parametric amplifier

18
 Biological effects of microwaves
 A part of radiofrequency (RF) radiation, which covers 0.5
MHz to 300 GHz range produces adverse biological effects.

19
 Ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation
 Ionization is a process - electrons are stripped from atoms
and molecules and this can produce molecular changes that
can lead to damage in biological tissue, including effects on
DNA, the genetic material.

 The energy levels associated with RF and microwave

radiations are not great enough to cause the ionization of
atoms and molecules, therefore, it is a type of non-ionizing
radiation.

20
 Non ionizing radiation
 Microwave energy is non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.
 Ionizing radiation messes up molecules, non-ionizing
radiation merely heats them.
 In general, it does not have sufficient energy to kick an
electron off an atom thus producing charged particle in a
body and cause biological damage.
 The only proven harmful effect from exposure to microwave
(or RF) radiation is thermal.
 RF radiation can enter deep into the body and heat human
organs.

21
 Effect of microwaves in human body
 The blood vessels are dilating and the blood flow increases
substantially as the thermoregulatory mechanism is
activated in order to keep the body temperature constant.

 With rising body temperature the metabolic rate rises,

which may lead to Stress-Adaptation-Fatigue Syndrome.

22
 Effects produced by the electromagnetic waves at
different frequency level
 Above 10 GHz (3 cm wavelength or less) heating occurs
mainly in the outer skin surface.
 From 3 GHz to 10 GHz (10 cm to 3 cm) the penetration is
deeper and heating higher
 From 150 MHz to about 1 GHz (200 cm to 25 cm
wavelength), penetration is even deeper and because of high
absorption, deep body heating can occur.
 Any part of the body that cannot dissipate heat efficiently or is
heat sensitive may be damaged by microwave radiation of
sufficient power.

23
 Effects of Microwave energy
Power
level Long-term effect Remarks
(mW /cm2) on human body
0.01 Nothing
0.1 Nothing
1 Nothing
5 Nothing Accepted standard for microwave
oven leakage
10 Nothing Accepted standard for maximum
continuous exposure to radiated
emissions (cell phones, etc.)
30 You can feel heat
100 Cataracts can be Summer sunlight is at this level
produced
1000 Pain is induced
24
 The GOOD NEWS is... with Microwave radiation
Boil water
Cook meat
Fry eggs

The BAD NEWS is...

with Microwave radiation

Your head and brain heat up significantly when you talk

on your cell phone or cordless phone.

25
 Statistics shows that you are now exposed to electromagnetic
radiation daily, 100 million times greater than your grandparents.
So….

AVOID FREQUENT USE OF

CELL PHONES!!!

26
 Multicavity Klystron

27
 Application
 As power output tubes
1. in UHF TV transmitters
2. in troposphere scatter transmitters
3. satellite communication ground station
4. radar transmitters
 As power oscillator (5 – 50 GHz), if used as a
klystron oscillator

28
 TRAVELING-WAVE TUBE (TWT)

29